If all goes as it hopes, the Memphis City Schools (MCS) soon will be almost $92 million richer.
MCS is supposed to hear tomorrow if it will be awarded two grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. One, for roughly $90 million spread over six years, would be used for the district’s new Teacher Effectiveness Initiative (commonly called the TEI). The other, for $1.9 million, would fund research into what makes a teacher “effective.”
“As far back as you want to go, parents have always known who the best teachers were at a school. Students have always known,” said MCS superintendent Kriner Cash. “For educators, it was a bit like the blind man and the elephant.”
